Marietta City Council Agenda Work Session – August 11, 2025
Marietta City Council Agenda Work Session – August 11, 2025
The Marietta City Council held an Agenda Work Session on August 11, 2025, at 5:15 PM in the Council Chamber to review items for the regular meeting scheduled for August 13, 2025. Highlights included reports on utilities, funding requests, personnel matters, and the agenda for the upcoming meeting. The session ended with an executive session on potential litigation.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of the July 7, 2025 Agenda Work Session minutes (7–0).
- Approval of the 2026 annual supplemental power subscription with the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MIAG).
- Approval of the property & casualty insurance renewal with GURMA (premium of $1,481,887) and fiduciary liability coverage ($18,000).
Discussion Items
Board of Lights and Water (BLW) Report – Council Member Cheryl Richardson reported on the BLW meeting held earlier that day. Brian Torres was thanked for 12 years of board service, and Sherry Rashad was celebrated for 47 years at BLW. Rates remain competitive between Georgia Power and COBEMC. The BLW expects continued load growth and is exploring real-time meter data management. Cobb Water Authority reported water sales averaged 76 million gallons per day, missing the budgeted revenue expectation by $1.2 million; net income was $4.6 million, $255,000 below budget. Year-to-date capital spending was $26.3 million; remaining CIP budget $65 million; cash reserves $54 million. BLW Finance reported power costs $1.5 million below budget; natural gas prices rising (April $3.42/MMBTU, May $3.12/MMBTU, June below $3.00/MMBTU); July gas averaged $3.34/MMBTU. A July heat wave (14–25) increased demand, requiring coal and Plant Addison resources. The BLW Chair stated rates are lower than COBEMC, and a large customer (likely a data center) could raise load 25–50%, benefiting all customers.
BLW Appointment – Council discussed filling a non-resident seat on the BLW board. They will seek a nominee from outside the city, possibly from a major employer. The item was advanced to the Wednesday agenda without a recommendation.
Recognition of Dan Cox – Council Member Johnny Walker proposed a permanent plaque at the Marietta History Center to honor former Councilman Dan Cox’s contributions. Council authorized staff to coordinate with DMDA for placement. The item was moved to the Wednesday agenda.
Georgia Symphony Orchestra (GSO) Funding – Council Member Andre Sims introduced the GSO’s request. Suzanne noted the 75th anniversary of the organization, the 20th anniversary of its youth symphony, and the 10th anniversary of its conductor. The GSO lacks a permanent Marietta performance venue and performs across the county. The request was for $50,000 in additional funding (on top of $24,000 already budgeted) to make the city the presenting sponsor for the 75th season. Council voted 6–0 to approve the $50,000, with one member disclosing a tourism interest before the vote.
Revised SRO MOU – Staff requested tabling the revised School Resource Officer agreement with Marietta City Schools due to ongoing negotiations. The school board is seeking no cost increase for the current year, while city costs have risen. The item was tabled to the August 26th committee meetings for further updates.
Property & Casualty Insurance – Ms. Register recommended moving to the GURMA program for property and casualty coverage at $1,481,887 (down from the current $1.7 million premium). Fiduciary liability coverage of $18,000 was also recommended. The council approved the move.
Draft City Council Agenda (August 13, 2025) – Council reviewed the draft agenda. Items placed on consent include the vehicle immobilization service ordinance, ethics code amendment (first reading), and various routine approvals. Items discussed individually: 105 Ayers Avenue rezoning (planning commission approval with garages condition); 213 Brager Street (pulled from consent by a council member to allow neighborhood input); West Plan/Acent Marietta signage variances (tabled after applicant request); and a public hearing on Austin Avenue traffic calming. The council approved the draft agenda with modifications.
Key Outcomes
- Minutes approved (7–0).
- MIAG power subscription approved.
- Insurance renewal approved.
- GSO $50,000 approved (6–0).
- BLW appointment forwarded to regular meeting.
- Dan Cox recognition forwarded to regular meeting with authorization to begin implementation.
- SRO MOU tabled to August 26th committee meetings.
- Draft regular meeting agenda approved with amendments.
Meeting Transcript
Zero. Dakota City Council agenda work session order, please. The agenda work session minutes from July the 7th. Is there a motion to approve? Make a motion to approve. Document. Further discussion. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Opposed life sound motion carry 7.0. BOW report, Ms. Richardson. All right. So we had a rather quick meeting this afternoon at the BLW board. We started off by saying thank you and goodbye to Brian Torres, who was a member of the board. And today was his last meeting, so we thanked him for 12 years of service. One of the things that's not on the agenda that we did today, for people who are here who might know Sherry Rashad, Sherry is over at the BLW in customer service, and she does a wonderful job. But she's more than that. She kind of mothers every new employee to make sure that they're coming on right and doing well. And one of the things that she had noticed is that employees, when they first come on, may not have the appropriate attire, may not have a BLW shirt or even an appropriate shirt. So in celebration of Sherry and her 47 years at the BLW, we actually we. So while Stephanie's trying to see if she can pull that up from earlier today, the largest summary is that our rates remain competitive, both our residential rates and our commercial rates. And what that means is we look at our rates versus Georgia Power and COBEMC. I am not sure what COB EMC is doing, but COB EMC has the lowest rates of all EMCs, and their rate is lower than ours. But we are lower than Georgia Power. So we kind of sit in between, but we are competitive. And then we talked about continuing to work with the economic development folks with Daniel Cumming and his folks to get businesses to either locate in the city or if not located in the city under customer choice to choose getting power through Marriott of Power and Water. And again, so remain aggressive. That's nicely aggressive, not overly panhandily aggressive. Expect continued load growth. Again, the more we build, the more load we have. This isn't even talking data centers, which seems to be everyone's concern on how we're going to handle that. But this just has to do with as we grow, we will have more load growth. And we're looking at the data management, the meter data management, to see if there are ways we can see what people are spending or they can see what they're spending kind of as it's happening, as opposed to you know, you get that bill for what happened last month, and you're in sticker shock. So there may be ways you can look at your bill as it's going along, but that's a uh something that's got to happen between IT and the BLW. Um so that was a very good presentation. The full presentation is available or will be available on the BLW site if it's not already there for anybody who might want to see the details. Um next, after that, we had Cobb Water Authority, Mr. Shalfont. Thank you. This is a uh financial report summary for um ending June 30th of this year. Uh we had water sales of the month averaged 76 million gallons a day compared with the budget of 89 million dollars. So we're really down on sales for water this month, um, which missed the budget expectation by 1.2 million dollars. But through the various workings of it, we had a net income of 4,600,000, which missed the budget by 255,000. So it wasn't too terrible on that. Year-to-date spending on capital projects was $26.3 million as of the date of the this report with a remaining annual CIP budget commitment of $65 million. Cash reserve for CIP spending is totaled $54,000 $54 million at the end of June. Year to date average rainfall as recorded at the Water Authority totaled 28 point 28.4 inches at the end of June compared to 28.7 at the same period last year. So that's those are the thing on why we're we didn't make any money this year. This month. So that's about it.
openpublica.com